Read bill, smack forehead

HB3152, by Christian. Relating to prohibiting the performance of an abortion on a woman who is not known to be pregnant; providing penalties. Filed two days ago, Christian’s bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor for a doctor to use drugs or medical instruments commonly used to perform abortions on a female patient if the woman is not pregnant. My curiosity piqued, I stopped by Christian’s office to ask, essentially, “What gives?” It seems the office has been made aware that some abortion providers — some years ago — used to pretend to perform abortions on young women for the purpose of scamming the government for public abortion funds. It worked like this: Scared young woman shows up for a pregnancy exam and it’s negative, but the staff, wanting that abortion money, tells her she’s pregnant. A doctor then makes the woman undergo what she is made to believe is an abortion. I know you’re thinking just what Rep. Christian thought: There oughta be a law against that! So, “just to clarify” the current state of the Texas penal code, Christian filed the bill, according to a staff member in his office. Surely this kind of diligence deserves a special award. Thoughts?

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